Hugging Face Explores Sale at $13 Billion Valuation

Hugging Face, the open-source artificial intelligence platform widely known as the central hub for publishing and sharing AI models, is exploring a potential sale that could value the company at $13 billion or more, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Business Insider. The company has retained investment bankers to sound out potential buyers, though talks remain in the early stages and no bidder has been identified, the people said. The exploration represents a dramatic jump from Hugging Face's last confirmed valuation of $4.5 billion, set during a $235 million Series D funding round in August 2023. That round was led by Salesforce Ventures and included participation from Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, Sequoia Capital, and Lux Capital. The potential tripling of the company's value comes despite the fact that Hugging Face has not raised outside capital since that 2023 round, an unusual gap in a sector where three years spans several funding cycles.